Three's a Crowd
by Tiptaps
Summary: You know what they say about assumptions...they make a ... yeah. Well Ty lee's fixing to find out the hard way.


**A/N**: Dedicated to all those lovely Tykka fans over in Distant Horizon! huggles

**Disclaimer**: sigh No... I do not own Avatar...but I know who does! I'm a smart cookie!

Three's a Crowd

It was a beautiful afternoon in the Earth Kingdom, the sun sparkled, the birds sang, and merchants hawked their wares outside of the palace courtyard. But sitting under a pavilion just inside the courtyard a pale girl sat alone with a bored expression donning her features.

Mai sighed as she filed her long weapon-like nails to a fine point. The day which had held so much promise as to being an interesting day, quickly disappointed as it turned out to be rather boring in context.

That would teach her to get her hopes up. The resigned weapons thrower tossed the metal file with deadly accuracy into the back of a chair in front of her.

Looks like she'd get to catch up on her reading sooner than she thought.

Ty lee cartwheeled into the vicinity with a flexibility that the quieter girl sometimes envied. And as usual, you _heard_ her about ten feet before you actually _saw_ her. By the sound of it, _someone_ had gotten into Azula's special blend of 'warriors tea' again.

Wouldn't want to be around when Azula found out.

Yeah, the reading would have to wait.

Ty-lee slid to a stop and gasped delightedly when she spotted Mai. "Mai! I haven't seen you in _forever_!"

Forever being about since breakfast.

Mai braced herself for what she knew was coming.

Ty-lee hurtled into Mai and enveloped her in a big platypus bear hug. For a girl so skinny, Ty-lee sure had alot of strength. Mai wheezed through her tightly squeezed lungs. Ty-lee loosened her vise-like grip around Mai and back flipped to the edge of the pavilion, where she soon amused herself by balancing precariously on the slender stone banisters. As Mai's lungs expanded back to their normal size she resignedly watched the spunky pink acrobat.

'_This is going to be a long day' _

What she wouldn't give for the Avatar and his gang to show up right now. That would spice things up a bit.

That water bender girl would keep her occupied for a while. Even that bold earth bending girl would do. She had fought them before though, it was getting to where their skirmishes with each other -while intense- were beginning to be boring. A girl can only take so much water and mud. After fighting with either of the two girls, she was either wet, or dirty. And if it was one thing Mai abhorred more than anything, it was being wet and dirty.

What she needed was a _clean_ opponent. Maybe that boomerang guy with the loud mouth. The one that Ty-lee had thought was cute. That girl had no shame sometimes. Yes, he seemed like he would be a good opponent. Not to hard, but not to easy, and no bending skills to mess up her clothes. Next time they ran into the Avatar and company, Mai would be sure to single out the loud one. Speaking of loud ones, Ty-lee sure was making alot of noise over there on that railing... was it entirely necessary to hum incessantly while doing a split?

The brooding weapons mistress let out a long drawn out sigh.

Ty-lee having been practicing her splits, perked up at the sound of Mai's sigh. Usually when Mai sighed it only meant one or two things.

One: she was bored

Or

Two: she was entertaining a perturbing thought.

From the sound of it, Ty-lee determined it was the latter.

"Watcha thinkin' about?" Ty-lee sang out cutely.

"Nothing." Mai eyed her pink friend frustrated for interrupting her thoughts.

"It didn't sound like nothing to me!" Ty-lee winked. "I bet you were thinking about a boy!"

Mai looked up, startled that Ty-lee could be that perceptive. Ty-lee prattled on - oblivious.

"I bet it was that cute Dai Li agent that lingered a bit on that post by you! Am I right?" Ty-lee gave all her attention to a blushing Mai.

"No." The exasperated girl drawled out.

"Then who is it?!" Ty-lee asked excitedly.

Mai knew she would never have any peace unless she told her who she was thinking about. This was fixing to get really messy.

Mai sighed. She hated messes.

The pink acrobat stared with rapt attention as Mai opened her mouth to reveal her secret crush. This was oh-so exciting!

The brooding weapons mistress took a deep breath. "It was that guy that traveled with the avatar. The water tribe warrior- if you can call him that." She muttered through clenched teeth.

Ty-lee's gray eyes widened comically as she felt her world sputter then come to a screeching halt.

" Bu-But why were you thinking about _him_?" Ty-lee stuttered.

Mai examined her pointy nails with a bored expression. She would've laughed if it hadn't been her in this situation. "I was thinking about fighting him next time we met again. I've gotten bored with the other two benders." Mai stopped examining her nails to look up at her pink friend. Ty-lee's face looked like it didn't know what expression to choose at the moment... the most prevailing one being confusion.

Ty-lee felt her mouth drop open against her own will. She knew that she must look like a gaping koi fish. The pink contortionist gathered her scattered thoughts and tried to come up with plausible reason for why Mai was thinking about the water tribe boy.

What about Zuko? Last time Ty-lee had checked, Mai was harboring a crush for the scarred fire nation prince. What could she see in the water tribe boy?

Ty-lee's eyes narrowed as she looked at Mai through slitted eyes.

It was the ponytail. That was the only explanation. Both Zuko, and the water tribe boy had ponytails.

So that was what turned Mai on. Ponytails.

It just wasn't fair! She saw him first darn it! She'd just have to dissuade Mai. That's what she'd do!

"But Mai! He's from the _water tribe_! Surely you wouldn't want to fight a nasty water tribe warrior!"

The willowy girl gave Ty-lee a longsuffering look. "So is his sister."

Time to switch tactics.

"He's got _really_ bad B.O. ! And not only that but he also smells like wet bison!" Ty-lee lied. Well not totally, there was that one time that he did smell like wet bison. She scrunched up her nose at the memory.

The quiet weapons thrower didn't bat an eyelash. "I don't do close-range combat, so it's not like I'll be all up in his personal space."

Ty-lee huffed her bangs out of her face as she tried hard not to lose what little composure she had left.

"Do you think he's cute?"

Mai blinked at her, "What does that have to do with anything?" She drawled out.

"_Everything_!!" Ty-lee felt her eye twitching.

Mai seemed abit taken aback as she muttered a grudging "Fine."

The overactive acrobat stared at Mai with a rabid look of impatience.

Mai sighed as she silently wished she had never woken up this morning. "I guess he's kinda cute, she consented grudgingly. But in a barbaric way. His ears are kinda big."

: 

(Somewhere in the woods of the Earth Kingdom)

Sock crouched low to the ground being careful to not make a sound, as he stalked tonight's supper. The young warrior slowly raised his arm up, ready to strike, when he felt a peculiar itchy sensation in his nose. '_Not now!!_ ' Sokka screwed up his face to stop the sensation that was getting stronger. But all that helped in doing was to make him look more comical than usual. Then with out further ado the sneeze that had been hiding in his nose attacked with a vengeance. And there went 'supper'. Sokka smacked himself on his forehead. He'd have to hone his warrior skills more it seemed. If he heard one word from Katara or that Pansy-man Earth King about defective warrior skills... He was going to prepare that bear for supper. Sokka sighed dejectedly and clomped back to their camp. Looks like they'd be having berries again. Just grrreeat.

: 

Ty-lee was grasping at straws now. She'd tried everything in her arsenal...and nothing was working!

Mai stared disinterestedly at her fidgeting pink comrade, she wasn't sure what was going on inside that girls head, but whatever it was, it was eating her alive. So far this was the most interesting thing she'd seen all day.

Finally Ty-lee couldn't take anymore of Mai's disinterested stare and decided to lay it all on the table.

"He likes fighting me more!" Ty-lee exclaimed.

Mai blinked, not sure what Ty-lee meant by her statement. Then suddenly, it all became clear... and it was all Mai could do to stop herself from smiling.

Two could play at this.

"How would he know?" You've never let him fight anyone but you." Mai stated dryly.

Ty-lee felt her mouth gaping again. Mai really liked him!

"But Mai! He's a big flirt! He may try to make a pass at you!"

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes at Ty-lee's excuses. "Once again, I do not fight close range, and secondly he said he was currently seeing someone." "One of those Kyoshi Warriors..." "I think he said her name was Suka? Suki?"

Ty-lee did not like the way this conversation was going...Besides that, who was this Suki girl everyone kept mentioning?

"And furthermore, Mai continued, if he is a big flirt and might make passes like you say, then it would be better for me to fight him seeing as you're the one he'd be in close combat with."

Ty-lee set her own self up for that one. Then she broke down.

" You just can't like him! He's totally not your type your auras don't match _at all_!" "You'd drive each other crazy in a matter of days!"

Mai once again tried hard not to smile at Ty-lee's flabbergasted expression. "Who said anything about liking him?" "I just said that I wanted to fight him. You really shouldn't jump to conclusions like that Ty-lee."

Ty-lee's emotional gears grinded as they switched unexpectedly.

Ty-lee rushed forward to squeeze Mai's lungs again as she almost tackled the other girl to the ground.

"Why didn't you just say so?"

"I did." Mai wheezed out.

Ty-lee released her grip on the other girl as she formed her next question. "But you said that he was cute!"

"You asked." Mai sighed.

"But you did the sigh!"

Mai stared at Ty-lee as if she'd lost her mind. But before she could come up with a reply, both girls heard a frustrated screech from inside the palace.

Ty-lee's eyes widened as Azula loudly demanded who had been snitching her tea.

"Gotta fly!"

She quickly put her finger up to her lips as she crept toward the courtyards outer wall. "_I was never here..._"

Mai was tired just watching her.

Now where was that book...

-Fin-


End file.
